Kyle Lowry opts out of final year of contract with Raptors
Give the Raptors this much: they didn't roll over when the Cleveland Cavaliers took a 16-point early in the third quarter. Technical Fouls: Defensive three second, 1:41 first; team, 1:41 first; Thompson, 9:47 second; Shumpert, 8:07 second.

UK police say Assange still faces arrest
Meanwhile, Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Guillaume Long urged Britain to "grant safe passage" out of the country to Assange. However, the United Kingdom police said Assange would still be arrested if he leaves the Ecuadorean Embassy.

Most Suns fans think the NBA's lottery system is rigged
It was pretty evident up to the draft lottery that the Lakers and the Ball family mutually felt like they would be a good fit. The Celtics will go from No. 1 seed to No. 1 pick after their 25 percent chance of winning came through Tuesday night.

Safe Boating Week starts Saturday
Nationally, alcohol use is the leading known contributing factor in fatal boating accidents where the primary cause was known. Each year, on average, 700 people die in boating-related accidents, 8 out of every 10 victims were not wearing a life jacket.

Paul Pierce thinks Celtics should trade top overall pick
While three of the All-Time top franchises are seeing a rebirth of sorts, one member of that spectrum continues to slide. Not only that, but Philly also got the Lakers' 2018 first round pick - unprotected - since LA kept their pick this year.

USA urges India, Pak to engage in direct dialogue
Salve said the urgency of the case had forced New Delhi to approach the internatinal court at such short notice. Pakistan said Jadhav had a 150-day period to seek clemency and could challenge his sentence in the high court.

Some 52% of Labour voters who have quit the party since the last election said they would return if Mr Corbyn stood down as leader.

John Curtice, a professor of politics at Strathclyde University, said the Conservatives were on course for their best local-election result in at least a decade, and possibly a quarter-century.

Mrs May's party had 1,900 councillors, a net gain of 558, while Labour had 1,151, a net loss of 320.

The Liberal Democrats saw their share of the vote recover to about 18 per cent, but failed to make the breakthrough they hoped for in terms of seats.

Given the current state of the polls, "it seems unthinkable that the Conservatives could fail to win on June 8", says the Daily Telegraph.

In Dorset, Conservatives retained control although leader Robert Gold lost his seat to the Liberal Democrats. We know this is no small task, it is a challenge on a historic scale.

UKIP lost all eight seats on the council.

Paytm raises $1.4 billion from SoftBankIn addition, Paytm witnessed an uptake in its movie ticketing and travel booking (rail, bus and flight tickets) businesses. Paytm stated that the funding will complement its investment plan of around $1.6bn in the next three to five years.

The Tories have gained massive ground from the UKIP and Labour but the party has chosen to strike a note of caution to prevent its prospective MPs becoming too complacent in the general election campaign.

As Ukip shed 107 councillors while holding a solitary seat in Lancashire, leader Paul Nuttall said the party was "a victim of its own success" over Brexit.

Voters across England, Scotland and Wales went to the polls Thursday to choose almost 5,000 new local councilors, in the shadow of campaigning for the snap June 8 general election and a bitter debate over Britain's departure from the European Union.

After a series of stonking victories for the Conservative Party in the local elections, Theresa May has said she "will not take anything for granted" as her rival admitted: "we've got four weeks to get our message out".

Boost for Lib Dems in Hampshire, where ex-MP Mike Thornton in Eastleigh secured one of three gains from Ukip.

May has a working majority of less than 20 seats in the 650-seat parliament but polling analysts have predicted she could increase that number by as many as 100 at the June 8 election.

The Conservatives have made gains while nearly all the other parties have lost ground.